How to react to an explosion of negative political ads

[Commentary] Candidate-bashing advertising has already started in the 2012 election campaign – from the presidential race on down. In the Republican contest for the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, negative ads are already a hot issue in their own right. As they should be.

By next fall, more than $1 billion could easily be spent on all types of campaign ads, with many of them slams at opponents. Campaign ads in 2012 will probably be more plentiful than at any time in the past. Any change in campaign-finance laws will require that voters rebel at the proliferation of super PACs, and especially negative ads. Voters need to wake up to an unspoken premise in such advertising – that Americans haven’t done their homework on issues and candidates. With Congress in the doghouse with voters – at 9 percent popularity – the time may be ripe for a voter backlash at the root of that distrust of lawmakers: influence-peddling by big monied groups. Both the “Occupy” movement and the tea party have helped raise the issue. As super PACs roll out their ads in coming months, the rest of America should also see through the ads to the purpose of the money that pays for them.